“How can I curse; God has not cursed? How can I anger, when Hashem has not been angry” (23: 8).
Bilaam tries to explain to Balak that there is a hitch. Despite his agreement to try to curse Israel, the matter is not entirely in his hands (or mouth). He can only curse a people if God agrees or intends to curse them Himself. If Bilaam believes this “theory of malediction,” if the world works in this manner, why agree to try? If a curse by Bilaam depends on Divine authorization and that approval, as becomes clear, is missing. What was all of the effort about?
Rashi, in explanation, paraphrases Bilaam, “My power rests in that I know precisely the time when God waxes angry. God has not been angry all these days since I came to you.”
Bilaam explains that he cannot determine the Divine reaction. God’s anger expresses itself in chaos, a mini-reversion to tohu v’vohu. Into this chaos a prophet’s curse can be effective. On the Ramban’s view, just as a prophet has the ability to crystallize a prophecy through an act which betokens that the prophecy will come to pass (Bresheit, 12: 1), a prophet can also enter into the void created by a moment of Divine anger.
The prophet does not “influence” Heaven. Instead, at the moment when Heaven seems to relinquish authority and concern (anger), the prophet can impact with unusual force on the situation.
This idea is reiterated a phrase that says of Bilaam that he, “...knows the mind of the Supreme,” (24: 16). Rashi explains, “He knows to determine precisely when God is angry!” Bilaam recognizes when God turns away from (so to speak) his children. At that point, he intervenes.
The gemara in (brachot 7a) asks, “How does one who knows the “mind” of God not understand his own animal?”
Prophecy is synonymous with special knowledge about the Divine in its relationship to the world. Such special knowledge does not equal total knowledge of the Divine creation. For Bilaam, prophecy was a rather limited endowment. He could only discern the nothingness and non-being, engendered by Divine anger. In other areas, he was more limited even than most men.
Gut shabbos, Chaim Brovender
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